Unfurling western notions of nature and Amerindian alternatives

Ethics in Science and Environmental Politics

Egleé L. Zent¹ 

关键词: Environmental ethics;    Nature-society;    Biocultural conservation;    Biocultural diversity;    Philosophy of science;   

DOI  :  10.3354/esep00159

来源: Inter-Research Science Publisher

【 摘 要 】

ABSTRACT: This essay presents an overview of the concept of ‘nature’. It provides some reflections on the heterogeneity of notions and values subsumed in the term nature in a portion of the Western tradition (from Ancient Greece-Rome through the Middle Ages and the Enlightenment to the present day). The paper explores, in a diachronic, non-comprehensive fashion, the various connotations and conceptions given to the term nature, highlighting the socio-ecological risks that occur when ecological notions are extrapolated worldwide as if they were standard ones. It also reveals that such philosophical plurality is a historical as well as a contemporary phenomenon. The heterogeneity of notions in Western and Amerindian traditions should, ideally, be linked to pragmatic strategies geared toward the construction of improved contemporary environmental ethics.

【 授权许可】

Unknown